Free markets don’t need federal babysitters



At a recent competition law symposium in Washington, the Trump administration’s antitrust chief, Gail Slater, made a welcome promise to keep markets open to new competitors and innovation.

That pledge comes at a critical moment. Too many politicians in both parties still believe government’s job is to engineer economic outcomes rather than let consumers decide. That mindset misunderstands what makes markets dynamic — and often locks in the very problems regulators claim they want to fix.

Republicans and Democrats alike have embraced ‘industrial policy’ when it serves their political interests. They call it leadership, but it’s just another form of central planning.

Cronyism takes many forms: subsidies for favored industries, tax breaks for politically connected firms, or lawsuits targeting companies for being too successful.

Take the Biden Department of Justice’s lawsuit against Visa. The administration said it “feared” Visa’s market share, even though the payments space is crowded with competitors — Mastercard, PayPal, Square, Apple Pay, and a swarm of fintech startups. Instead of protecting consumers, the Justice Department tried to punish one company for competing well and dictate the terms of an already vibrant market.

That’s not protecting competition — it’s manipulating it. When government intervenes this way, it distorts incentives, weakens confidence, and replaces consumer choice with bureaucratic preference.

Consumers always lose

When regulators overreach, consumers pay the price. Every dollar a company spends fending off groundless lawsuits is a dollar not spent on innovation. Every subsidy handed to a politically favored firm skews the playing field against smaller rivals. And every new dictate slows the experimentation that keeps markets alive.

Officials who justify these intrusions claim they’re “protecting competition.” But true competition doesn’t need Washington’s help. It needs Washington to step aside. Entrepreneurs, not regulators, create rivals. Consumers, not bureaucrats, decide who wins. The invisible hand disciplines firms far more effectively than any government lawyer.

Free markets need fewer meddlers

Government’s legitimate role is narrow: preventing fraud, enforcing contracts, and protecting property. That’s a far cry from deciding which companies are “too profitable,” which mergers are “too large,” or which industries deserve “strategic” subsidies. When officials cross that line, they stop refereeing and start playing the game themselves — badly.

This temptation spans parties. Republicans and Democrats alike have embraced “industrial policy” when it serves their political interests. They call it leadership, but it’s just another form of central planning that shackles consumers and businesses alike.

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File photo/Miami Herald/Tribune News Service via Getty Images

The cure is restraint

The best way forward is simple. Washington should stop punishing success and stop handing out favors to friends. It should let consumers and entrepreneurs, not bureaucrats and lobbyists, determine winners and losers.

America’s prosperity was built on open competition and voluntary exchange — not government micromanagement. Crony capitalism is just socialism by another name, and it breeds the same stagnation and corruption.

President Trump’s team understands that prosperity comes from freedom, not favoritism. If policymakers truly care about fairness, they should start by doing the hardest thing in politics: stepping aside.

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DHS probe confirms Biden's FEMA refused aid to Trump-supporting disaster survivors



The Federal Emergency Management Agency, while under the leadership of the Biden administration, was accused of skipping homes that displayed campaign signs supporting President Donald Trump in the aftermath of Hurricane Milton.

A whistleblower report surfaced in late 2024 that FEMA relief workers had been ordered not to provide aid to people displaying Trump signs on their property, eventually prompting several firings at the agency.

'They deliberately avoided houses displaying support for President Trump and the Second Amendment, illegally collected and stored information about survivors' political beliefs, and failed to report their malicious behavior.'

Then-FEMA administrator Deanne Criswell told Congress that it was an isolated incident, blaming the misstep on a since-terminated employee.

However, a Department of Homeland Security report released Tuesday revealed that the "abuses were widespread, systematic, and occurred during multiple disasters dating back to Hurricane Ida in 2021."

Further, the probe claimed that the workers also violated the Privacy Act of 1974 by collecting information about the political beliefs of disaster survivors.

The DHS report listed some examples of observed political signs and flags that FEMA relief workers documented.

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"Trump sign, no contact per leadership," a FEMA worker wrote in 2024 about a Florida home, according to the report.

"A lot of explicit political flags, posters, etc. 'F**k Joe Biden' 'MAGA 2024' 'Joe Biden Sucks' 'TRUMP 2024,'" another worker allegedly noted in 2021 about a Pennsylvania residence. "We do not recommend anyone visiting this location."

"Homeowner had sign stated ... this is Trump country," a third reportedly wrote about a Louisiana property in 2021.

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"The federal government was withholding aid against Americans in crisis based on their political beliefs — this should horrify every American, regardless of political persuasion," DHS Secretary Kristi Noem stated.

"For years, FEMA employees under the Biden administration intentionally delayed much-needed aid to Americans suffering from natural disasters on purely political grounds," Noem continued. "They deliberately avoided houses displaying support for President Trump and the Second Amendment, illegally collected and stored information about survivors' political beliefs, and failed to report their malicious behavior. We will not let this stand."

The DHS referred the case to the Department of Justice for potential prosecution.

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Trump DOJ charges another pair of Big Balls' suspected attackers, blasts judges who kept thug on streets



Edward Coristine, the young engineer known as "Big Balls" who previously worked for the Department of Government Efficiency, was beaten to a pulp by a group of 10 young suspects during an attempted carjacking on Aug. 3 in the national capital.

One week after a Biden-nominated judge cut two of the attackers loose and spared them from jail time, the Trump Justice Department announced charges against another pair of suspects.

Background

After the attack, during which Coristine stood his ground and defended his girlfriend, police apprehended two suspects at the scene — a 15-year-old male and a 15-year-old female of Hyattsville, Maryland — and charged both with unarmed carjacking.

'We're not going to be happy until we get every person who was involved.'

While the attack was so savage as to prompt President Donald Trump to federalize the Metropolitan Police Department and deploy the National Guard, Kendra Briggs, a Biden-nominated associate judge of the Superior Court of the District of Columbia, treated two of the attackers with kid gloves.

First, Briggs decided it wasn't worth keeping the thugs in custody, telling one of Coristine's attackers, "I don't want to put hardship on your family."

After instructing both thugs to refrain from possessing weapons or entering into other people's vehicles unless they have permission from the owners, Briggs directed the male attacker to hang out at his mother's home and the female attacker to move from the secure Youth Services Center to a youth shelter house.

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Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images

Obliging the request by prosecutors last week, Briggs decided ultimately not to incarcerate the two attackers.

The male attacker, who pleaded guilty to four counts related to a robbery and the separate beating of Coristine, received one year of probation. The female attacker, who pleaded guilty to a count of simple assault for pepper-spraying someone during the robbery, was sentenced to nine months of probation.

Briggs emphasized that the goal of juvenile court was "rehabilitation, not punishment."

"To this day, they’ve only caught two out of the ten. Eight of them remain on the street. That night could’ve gone far differently. Think of your daughters and mothers. The same group attacked people before and after us, breaking ribs and stomping heads," Coristine noted last week. "This senseless crime must be stopped."

Another two

The Trump DOJ revealed on Monday that it was charging two more teens in connection with the attack on Coristine and the corresponding attempted carjacking.

Jeanine Pirro, U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, indicated that Laurence Cotton-Powell, 19, and Anthony Taylor, 18, face charges including assault with intent to commit robbery and robbery — not only in connection with the attack on Coristine but in connection with a separate attack on another individual just minutes earlier at a nearby gas station.

Whereas Taylor, a teen from Maryland, has no known criminal history, Cotton-Powell is apparently a seasoned thug who has benefited from bleeding hearts in the judiciary.

Pirro claimed that despite committing crimes while on probation for a previous felony conviction, Cotton-Powell was nevertheless free to attack Coristine and Ethan Levine, the second victim who was stomped ruthlessly by a mob of thugs, because of the leniency of the D.C. Superior Court.

"On April 3 of this year, Laurence Cotton-Powell was sentenced for a felony attempted robbery. My office asked for jail time. Judge [Carmen] McLean, a judge sitting in the criminal part in Superior Court with no criminal background, made a decision to give Cotton-Powell probation in spite of his conviction on a felony attempted robbery," said Pirro. "Within 31 days, by May 4, Powell reoffends. He's re-arrested while he's on probation from the felony, and he's charged with simple assault and possession of a prohibited weapon B."

Pirro indicated that the court subsequently refused her office's request to revoke the thug's bail and released Cotton-Powell. Although Cotton-Powell was later sentenced, "on July 25, another judge suspends his sentence and decides that he should be on probation," said the attorney.

"So after a felony of attempted robbery conviction, after a violation of probation, after a second crime, after a second conviction, after no compliance with [the Court Services and Offender Supervision Agency], the judges say, 'Do better,' and they let him go," said Pirro. "And guess what? Within 10 days, he's at it again with Ethan Levine and Edward Coristine."

Pirro credited the Metropolitan Police Department with going above and and beyond to track down suspects Taylor and Cotton-Powell.

MPD Chief Pamela Smith said, "These arrests send a very strong message to our community: If you commit violent acts in our community, you will be found, you will be held accountable, and you will face justice."

"We're not going to be happy until we get every person who was involved in the assault on these two individuals," said Pirro.

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Former national security adviser John Bolton indicted by federal grand jury



On Wednesday, a grand jury convened to consider charges against John Bolton, a national security adviser in President Trump's first term and a longtime Trump critic.

On Thursday afternoon, the grand jury came to a decision.

A Justice Department official previously told the New York Post that the case they had against him was 'airtight.'

The 76-year-old former Trump adviser was indicted by a grand jury on 18 counts related to mishandling classified information, eight counts of transmission of national defense information, and 10 counts of unlawful retention of NDI, according to a DOJ press release.

“There is one tier of justice for all Americans,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a statement, according to the press release. “Anyone who abuses a position of power and jeopardizes our national security will be held accountable. No one is above the law.”

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According to a Wednesday New York Post report, the grand jury considered charges against Bolton over his alleged sharing of highly sensitive classified materials on a private email server. A Justice Department official previously told the New York Post that the case they had against him was "airtight."

Bolton stands accused of sending classified information on a private AOL email account as well as keeping "diary-like notes" during his time in the first administration.

Thursday's indictment signals a major milestone in a months-long investigation — with potentially dire consequences.

According to the heavily redacted search warrant affidavit, reviewed by AP upon its September release and used by the FBI to justify its August raid of Bolton's Maryland house, an unredacted section heading reads, "Hack of Bolton AOL Account by Foreign Entity."

More details on the nature of the hack or the "foreign entity" were unavailable due to redactions.

If convicted, Bolton could face up to 10 years in prison for each count, the press release said.

According to CNBC, Trump said in response to the news of Bolton's indictment: "You're telling me for the first time, but I think he's, you know, a bad person. I think he's a bad — yeah, he's a bad guy. It's too bad. But that's the way it goes, right? That's the way it goes."

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